I’m sure almost everyone has had several different kinds of root vegetable chips. Potato, sweet potato, carrot, beet, parsnip are all standard chip material but have you ever had eggplant chips? Before making these crisps I never though of eggplant as chip material. When I think eggplant I think good… but soft and sometimes mushy. Cut in a nice thin slice eggplant can become as crispy as any other vegetable chip and since it can take on just about any flavor you want to give it you can season it with the spices of your choice for a custom design. Eggplant, it’s not just for Baba Ghanoush anymore.

It’s funny, not ha-ha funny but interesting funny, that I don’t care for cucumbers but I love pickles. There’s something about that briny sour flavor that changes them in a good way. Now I love green beans any which way so it’s only natural that pickled green beans would be a favorite of mine too. You won’t need any special equipment for these pickles and they are so easy to make you won’t get in a pickle making them, just eating them.

From the recipes I’ve been posting lately you would think that I have a meat obsession when nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve eaten a vegetarian diet for years and then a completely plant based diet for a year now and have never looked back. The thing is when adapting some old favorite recipes I sometimes would like the taste or texture that meat brings to a recipe. Bacon is one meat where it’s distinctive smokey/salty flavor is sometimes just what is needed to make the dish. These smoky almonds may not be bacon exactly but they do the trick in some of my favorite recipes and they make a pretty darn good (and addictive) snack all by themselves.